1. Field
This invention relates to household tools used to provide access to products packaged in commercial containers.
2. State of the Art
The desirability of household tools to provide easy access to products packaged in containers of various kinds and types has long been recognized.
Many devices have been proposed, for example, that will penetrate a container cap and that can then be used to pull the cap from the container. Such devices are shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 790,192, 857,320, 1,142,427, and 1,386,056.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,054,338 discloses a tool that will operate along the rim of the container and when operated using a rocking and progressive motion will cut a lid from the container.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,455,894 discloses a multiple use tool that includes three distinctly different opening devices. One opening device comprises a centrally positioned socket-like portion to fit over twist-off bottle caps. Another opening device, at one end of the tool, comprises a wedge member insertable beneath a ring pull tab of a can and easy opening member. The third opening device is located at an opposite end and comprises a blade positioned between top and bottom flat surfaces forming a hook and with the blade extending across the hook. The third opening device is intended to be used in slitting plastic bags or the like.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,054,338 discloses a combination cap remover and carton top opener tool. As disclosed, the tool includes a twist-off cap remover, a bottle cap remover, and a carton top opener. The twist-off cap remover comprises a collar sized to fit over a twist-off cap. A pair of downwardly extending spaced apart tangs to engage and break a tamper proof zip strip placed around the cap. The bottle cap remover has a cover that fits over a bottle cap and a projecting tongue on the cover to engage a crimped edge of the bottle cap as the cap is lifted off the bottle. The carton top opener is a fork designed to be inserted into a carton top and lifted to break the seal. Such seals, if broken, prior to purchase of the goods indicate that tampering may have occurred with the product in the container, and serve as a warning to the consumer.
In recent years laws and regulations have been passed to require the use of tamper proof seals for the containers of many products. Such seals frequently of the barrier type use membranes of aluminum foil or plastic materials that are bonded to the container opening. Safety seals are now used on containers for vitamins, medicines and many foodstuffs. While, often such seals can be opened by most people with little effort it is difficult for people with physical disabilities and sometimes even for people without such disabilities to open containers having such seals. The seals are covered with a screw on top cover and this also is often difficult for a person with physical disabilities to remove.